Innocence: a broad.(Re-Invention World Tour)(Concert Review)

LET me make one thing clear from the outset: I have never been a great fan of Madonna's music. No, I have always admired her chiefly for her work as a role model for America's young people.

I say this not entirely in jest: Here's a woman who started out in the Go-Go's/ Bangles/Duran Duran era as a scantily clad pop singer in racy music videos. Now here she is, 20 years later: a devoted mother who believes in teaching her children manners, a successful children's book author, a multimillionairess--and, well, okay, still a scantily clad pop singer in racy music videos. But you see my point: Unlike many others, Madonna has lasted--and that's a sign as much of fortitude as of talent.

I joined a just-about-capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden for the first night of the New York installment of her Re-Invention World Tour. The day's paper had reported balky sales for the concert; but by the time Madonna began her set there were few if any empty seats. The crowd is an interesting demographic mix--about evenly divided among teens, young adults, and thirty- and forty-somethings; roughly a third of the audience, therefore, had not been born when "Borderline," her first Top Ten hit, came out in 1984.

Even more surprising is how Republican the crowd looks, and acts: The vast majority have the demeanor of wholesome, well-groomed suburbanites. The last rock concert I attended was the Grateful Dead, a couple of decades ago; the audience for Madonna looks more like Oprah's people than Jerry Garcia's. Just about the only person advertising decadence here is yours truly, as I peer at the spectacle through 19th-century antique French opera glasses. (They were a last-minute loan from Jay Nordlinger, when I discovered--shortly before leaving NR headquarters for the concert--that I had left my middle-class, cloth-coat, red-state Eddie Bauer binoculars at home.)

Everyone chats politely (topic for the guys behind me: mutual funds), until showtime; at which point the sound system starts up, with the intonation of verses from the Book of Revelation: "Behold the dwelling of God is with men ... God will wipe away every tear from their eyes ... the lake that burns with fire ... Behold, I am coming soon." After this invocation, the congregation rises in unison to greet the celebrant, who starts her performance with "Vogue."

Nor does the concert's ritualistic aspect end there. At a Madonna show, as in a Byzantine-rite liturgy, it is apparently the custom for all present to remain standing from start to finish. (The exceptions prove the rule: There are a handful of ballad-ish songs during which virtually everyone sits down, with a near-Stepford level of speedy conformity.) There are times when the star performer sings solo, and also prescribed times when the audience sings along with her--without need of a crib sheet for the lyrics. Different sections of the audience cheer with added volume as Madonna moves across the stage ("Wow! She's making pelvic thrusts toward our side of the arena now!").

The songs are a balanced combination of the old hits--"Material Girl," "Papa Don't Preach," "Into the Groove"--and newer material, including "Music," "American ...